When Canadian James Naismith invented the game of basket ball in 1891 (he used two words back then) he never could have imagined the scene that played out Sunday night in front of a sellout crowd of 20,917 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena with more than 3 million other Canadians watching on TV.

Born and raised on a farm near Almonte, Ont., Naismith studied physical education at McGill University before moving to the U.S. and inventing his new sport with 13 rules and peach baskets used for nets while teaching at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass. Naismith, who died in 1939 at age 78, lived long enough to see his sport become part of the Olympics at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin and the berth of the U.S. college NCAA Tournament in 1939.

But the scene Sunday night in Toronto would have been beyond his wildest dreams.

Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beating shot gave Toronto a 92-90 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series, putting the Raptors in the NBA’s Eastern Conference final for the second time in franchise history and sending Canadian basketball fans into hysterics. There was a peak TV audience of 3.8 million watching on Sportsnet when Leonard made “The Shot” and 5.8 million Canadians watched some or all of the game. With an average of 2.2 million viewers, it was the most-watched NBA game in Canadian history.

Leonard’s long-range shot from the corner bounced four times off the rim as time stood still before finally dropping in and was one of those memorable “Where were you?” moments for sports fans who watched.

Dwight Walton, a former member of Canada’s national basketball team and now an assistant coach at Concordia University, watched Leonard’s shot from the couch of his Lachine apartment and cheered.

“I’ve played for our national program, I’ve been to the Olympics, I’ve seen our U-19 program finally win a gold medal (at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2017) — the first for our country,” said Walton, who is also a basketball analyst for TSN 690 Radio. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff, but I would think that in terms of Canadian history that’s the best shot and the most important shot. That’s simply based on Toronto being Canada’s team and Kawhi Leonard is one of the best players in the NBA today. For him to put a franchise on his back — albeit only in the second round — the whole suspense of the shot hitting the rim four times before finally going in, going over the outstretched arms of Joel Embiid, I felt a sense of pride. I know that it was an American who made the shot, but because it was the Toronto Raptors, because it is Canada’s team, because it advanced the Raptors to the Eastern Conference final, it most definitely is the most important shot in Canadian history and I also think it legitimized the Raptors franchise.”

It definitely legitimized the trade last summer that sent Raptors fan favourite DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs and brought Leonard to Toronto.

Canadian fans will get to see a lot more of Leonard in the Eastern Conference final against the Bucks, with the Raptors losing Game 1 by a score of 108-100 Wednesday night in Milwaukee. The fact there are no Canadian teams left in the NHL playoffs leaves the national sports stage to the Raptors. Maclean’s magazine reported that earlier this month a weekend afternoon NHL playoff game between the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars drew an overnight estimated viewership of about 331,000, while that same day CTV’s Mary’s Kitchen Crush — a cooking show featuring MasterChef Canada winner Mary Berg — had a viewership of approximately 424,000.

The Raptors have had a huge impact on basketball in Canada since entering the NBA for the 1995-96 season. Chris Boucher, who grew up in Montreal, is part of their current roster.

Walton, 54, is satisfied with his own career — which included playing U.S. college basketball at the Florida Institute of Technology and Siena College, at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 10 years professionally in Israel and Switzerland — but admits it would be nice to have been born a generation later. While his generation grew up with a dream of simply landing an NCAA scholarship, Canadian kids today dream about playing in the NBA. At least one Canadian has been selected in each of the last nine NBA Drafts and of the 27 Canadians picked since 1983, 17 were in the first round.

“Even the average fan who doesn’t watch basketball on a regular basis, they’re talking about this shot,” Walton said Tuesday about the impact Leonard could have on Canadian basketball. “I’ve been doing media hits for the past two days all over the country. It’s been a whirlwind because of that shot.

“The sport of basketball is definitely growing overall in Canada, but when you can bring an average fan to a sport because of a shot like that, it’s a win for basketball in this country, no question about it.”

And to think it all started with a Canadian, two peach baskets and 13 rules.